SHAYNA BASZLER: “I WAS RELEASED. I HAD LIKE THREE MORE YEARS.” — A hard, honest moment on The Ariel Helwani Show

Shayna Baszler sat down with Ariel Helwani today and did something rare in pro wrestling: she stripped away the posture and delivered blunt, quietly furious clarity. Baszler confirmed she was released by WWE — and that she had recently signed an extension with roughly three years remaining on the deal when the company cut her loose. “I was released. I had, not too long ago, signed an extension. I wish it would have ran out, but I was released,” she told Helwani, later adding, plainly, “I had like three more years.”

The arc that led here is short but sharp. Baszler’s last televised in-ring appearances came in April 2025 as part of the Pure Fusion Collective; within weeks WWE announced a wave of post-WrestleMania roster moves that included her name. That May 2 roster purge — which shocked fans and talent alike — officially put Baszler on the exit list.

What has unfolded since has been a strange, stop-and-start postscript. Sources reported Baszler has done work back at NXT in a behind-the-scenes capacity, producing matches and helping younger talent — a hint that she and WWE have kept at least one line of communication open even after the release. On Helwani’s show today, Baszler acknowledged that separation without bitterness but with a professional public accounting of how it felt.

Her short, clear-eyed take on the end of the relationship mixed resignation with a performer’s frustration. “It’s never a good feeling, but it was not unexpected,” she said, explaining that the writing was on the wall after colleagues’ contracts were not renewed earlier in the year and creative wasn’t answering the questions she and her group were pitching. “We were trying to pitch stories and ideas and doing our own stuff on social media and that sort of thing. Nothing was hitting with creative… It’s a bummer in that moment, but I kind of knew where we were at.”

Taken together, the revelations matter for two simple reasons: they correct the record about whether Baszler left on her own terms, and they expose how a veteran performer can be cut loose despite recent contractual security. In plain business terms: Baszler says she signed an extension, believed she had multi-year security, and then was released — a sequence that raises questions about internal decision-making and roster prioritization.

There’s an emotional texture to the interview that matters: Baszler is not grandstanding. She is not taunting. She is a fighter — a showwoman who came to pro wrestling from MMA — and the pain in her voice is the pain of a professional who feels undervalued after giving years of service. That honesty is the real headline: not just that she was cut, but that she felt blindsided despite having an extension and despite doing the quiet, often thankless work backstage that keeps a show running.

So what happens next? Baszler’s path could split three ways. She can pursue more backstage roles like the producing work she has reportedly already done with NXT; she can re-enter the independent and international circuit (Japan remains an obvious, lucrative arena for someone with her MMA chops); or she can wait to see if WWE re-engages under new terms. Baszler’s tone on Helwani’s show suggested she’s pragmatic — and that she wants the work to fit her values as a performer.

This interview lands as an industry cautionary tale: contracts can be signed and still be rendered moot by corporate priorities; creative momentum does not always protect talent from personnel moves; and veteran performers who push for storylines and relevance can be sidelined by choices made far from the ring. Baszler’s truth — short, sharp and stoic — is now part of the public record, and it forces a wrestling world that prizes narrative to confront a backstage one that sometimes behaves like a ledger.

You can check out Shayna’s interview on today’s episode of The Ariel Helwani Show (August 13th, 2025) below along with Killer Kross’: